New NoveList Features Make Finding Your Next Read Easy

Librarians like to share their love of books and help patrons find books they would enjoy.

Now librarians and patrons of Springfield-Greene County Libraries have another source for finding titles on specific topics, books similar to their favorite books – called “read-alikes” -- reviews of books and more.

We just enhanced the coolcat.org online catalog with a popular tool called NoveList. It’s designed to make searching more intuitive, make reading recommendations easier to obtain and allows for quicker access to more content than ever.

Patron Julie Cochran offered immediate feedback: “I LOVE the new feature on the site. When I look up a certain book, it gives me 10 more suggestions on the same ‘genre’ …”

NoveList features pop up when you do a search on coolcat.org for many titles in the library district, and more are being added.

How it works: A search on coolcat.org for Sue Grafton’s novel, “C is for Corpse,” will tell where the book is, but also shows other headings like: Titles in Series from NoveList, with the names and links to all of Grafton’s books; Similar Titles from NoveList; Similar Authors from NoveList; and Related NoveList Content, which includes read-alikes and award winners.

Many titles have links to book discussion guides. These are easy, pre-made descriptions and questions for book groups. There are also links to grab-and-go book lists and links to picture-book extenders, which include book discussion questions, activities and related curriculum. It’s a great help for parents, babysitters and teachers.

You can find all this through coolcat.org. An alternative route: From thelibrary.org, click “Research,” click “More,” then click “Books and Authors” and scroll to “NoveList” and “NoveList K-8 (grades).”

Other reader's advisory tools:

From coolcat.org, select the links under Readers Advisory for staff-generated book lists and new titles.

The library’s homepage at thelibrary.org includes the colorful staff-generated “book shelf” that links to coolcat.org, so you can locate the book, read or post reviews.

Check out our interview with “Book Lust” author/celebrity librarian Nancy Pearl at thelibrary.org/nancypearl. She offers top picks for summer reading and some quirky stories.

We think all of these reader helpers come just in time – more than 500 adults have registered for the library’s adult summer reading program.